Can you raise a kid on $46,000 a month?

Supermodel Linda Evangelista has settled a child support fight with her French billionaire ex for their 5-year-old son. Details of the agreement are not public, but she was asking for $46,000 a month, because, you know, nannies and security patrols don’t come cheap.

For that sort of money, you could hire someone to carry your 5-year-old to school every day piggy back. OK … I’ll do it.

A cook could make pancakes in the shape of dollar signs for him and top them with fresh fruit — picked that morning.

A French stylist could be flown in to do his hair.

I’m running out of ideas. How much does it cost you each month to care for your kids?

33 Responses

The heck with the kids! I think I could manage quite well on a fourth of that outrageous sum. Good grief. I could pay off our mortgage and then some with that month’s sum. It could be a nice little downpayment on a cottage on the Cape(well,maybe a few more months added to it although the real estate downfall has hit that area, so we hear). I could buy a Honda Pilot and the next month a Beetle so to have a car for all seasons/needs/wants. I could pay off the daughter’s student loan!! That would be the best use. Oh,gosh-in one month to be debt free of that burden. That is more exciting than reading ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’! I don’t know what world Linda Evangelista lives in but it is not the world of the real people,that is for sure.

This whole story makes me sad. I understand that there are folks in this country that are well off and I can respect that their way of living is much different than mine or yours – but it makes me sad to think that there are so many kids who have absolutely nothing in this country and in the world – and yet in this case this well known couple is fighting over how much it takes to raise their child monthly – and $46,000 to me just sounds like greed. So many good things could be done for so many children with that amount of money.

It’s an unseemly amt of money to ask for; but I agree with #1, the father is absurdly wealthy. Purely from that perspective, who knows what the upkeep is for this child? My issue with Evangelista is that she appears to have asked for support to keep up her lifestyle. And not basic needs.

Most of us cann’t fathom such a request, considering the median salary in these parts isn’t even $46K.

I once read that before parents send their kids to college, they’re already on the hook for spending $287,000 on them. This was two or three yrs ago, so adjusting upward for inflation, let’s say it’s more like $300K now.

@1 Thank you! You are absolutely correct. I am very thankful my husband and I are not public figures and do not have to worry about security to protect our children from papparazzi, among other things.

Personally, I do not like posts like this as they just tend to stimulate class warfare which is so counterproductive. Sure, some people would love to be in a position to ask for $46K/month, and some of the ultra-wealthy would love to have a quieter life even if that means less money; let’s just move on and live our lives.

Things like this really bug me. Both parents have more money than the average person could ever dream of, especially the father. I fully believe the father should pay child support and contribute his share to raising the child but $46K a month is absolutely ridiculous. The majority of parents don’t receive that amount of child support in year! Assuming the child is healthy and has no special needs, it does not cost over $500K a year to raise a child.

Obviously we don’t know the specifics but I really hope the money will be used to plan for the child’s future and not for her bank account or for her to maintain and/or upgrade her standard of living. With that amount of money, this child could have the best nannies, security and education money can buy.

I realize this supermodel and billionaire father are not the norm in our world. But realistically, it does cost a lot of money to have children these days. Granted, I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of having children. But the financial side/burden was one of the factors that led me to not have any kids.

I hate the fact that childcare is so expensive and it saddens me that I may have to put my working life on hold, decrease my own contributions to social security, just to afford to take care of my child.

I would think that the average person does not need $46,000 a month to raise a child – many of us do not make that in a year and our parents also did just fine with less as well.

Who really cares? MBAMom (#7) has it right. Just take care of yourself and your family and don’t get caught up in blogs like these that are just there to generate a buzz. Stoking the flames of class warfare does a service to no one.

Our oldest will be a senior in college next year. Our middle starts college next year. My wife went back to college over the last number of years, recently graduating – and her student loan payments just kicked in. Another $46,000 a month would be great – but I would be happy with an additional $46,000 a year…

I’m with #7 and #10 – Let’s not publicize anything that puts the absurdly wealthy in a negative light. We need to spend more time thinking of ways to protect the super wealthy and censor this type of information, because they’re all such altruistic people and they care so much about the average citizen. Please, stop making people have to think about the unbelieveable disparity of wealth in the world. It’s a dangerous idea and it must be squashed.

Typically child support is based on the parent’s income, not the child’s needs. My father was assigned $40 per month, because that was the percentage of his available income. The point is for the other parent to contribute what they probably would have had they been living in the same dwelling. In other words, the value is set to make the non-custodial parent FEEL the responsibility. The same logic applies to the insanely high “pain and suffering” awards that are assessed against pharmasutical companies.

The opinion expressed in #12 is exactly the type of negativity I was referring to. We should focus on growing the economic pie, not fighting over carving it up, and comments like that distract from that goal.

Something else to think about…while you may or may not see the ultra wealthy donating to charities/foundations (though most do), what often is overlooked is the amount of investment capital these individuals put up for R&D efforts, new product creation and innovation and money for new business, and all of us benefit from those endeavors.

#14 – Of course we need to “focus on growing the economic pie” but to bury our collective heads in the sand at the ever widening chasm between the one percenters and the rest of us is lazy, irresponsible, and uncaring. We have to face reality and determine the causation – and seek to resolve this (and I don’t mean “carving up” the wealth – though I appreciate the Tea Party rhetoric), and if that is too “negative” for you, perhaps you’re just too delicate to live in the virtual world of the inter-webs.

dgc – I did not explicitly state or insinuate that “everything should be fair and equal” in society. I stated that we need to critically think about wealth disparity in this country (and in many Third World nations) and seek out a resolution (which I never stated or insinuated is necessarily making the world a “fair” place).

Perhaps you misunderstood the call to think and discuss critically as “whining”, and that is your issue, not mine. The fact that you disagree with my conviction, does not mean that I am whining or that we should simply ignore existing social issues.

Also, your presumption that the chasm is narrowing, based on the fact that “we” (?) are no longer forced into slave labor to build pyramids is erroneous.

RealTomT – you are right. We should more fairly distribute our wealth. Since all Americans are in the top 5% world wide, please prepare to give at least 70% of your annual income to be distributed to those less fortunate in so-called 3rd world countires. Now I know that means you won’t be able to live in a nice dwelling, but a cardboard shack is pretty much the norm, so you of course will be happy with that. Also, don’t forget to continue to work 60+ hours a week to bring home your large salary so that you have suffucient to give to people who chose not to work.

Apparently I have a reading comprehension problem. I will have to inform the committe who approved my graduate degree. I bow to your infinite wisdom. You are obviously the most clear sighted person on the entire parenting blog. Your economic perception is second to none, and the depth and breadth of your proposed solution for the carefully and comprhensively detailed problem is worthy of the Nobel Prize. I should know better than to trouble my silly little head.

To bring this back to the fun of the post…Let’s see. $46,000 a month. Possible expenses:
$60,000 a year — private school. That’s $5,000 a month.
Seems we could easily add another $5,000 a month for music lessons, another for sports, another for foreign language. So now we’re at $20,000.
Supplies could be $1,000, I think, if I assume renting an instrument, buying new sports equipment each season, the best pens and pencils money can buyt
I believe the child’s education is now covered…at $21,000.
Now the child’s housing. A $3 million mortgage could require a payment in the range of $20,000 a month. Yikes, now there’s only $5,000 left for nanny and food! Let’s hope the mom has a job.

Just how do you go about resolving the ever widening chasm in the disparity of wealth, if you are not going to redistribute it?

BTW, if you are using the word “disparity” to describe a situation, you are saying it is unequal. If it is unequal, then that would make it “unfair”…Especially when you are comparing the wealthiest one percent to the poor and underprivileged 99% (ugg I hate that “occupy speak”)

The pyramids and pharaohs was a sarcastic counterpoint to your over dramatic “ever widening chasm between the one percenters and the rest of us is lazy, irresponsible, and uncaring” comment. I thought with your use of sarcasm in comment #12 you would have been able to comprehend that. It’s the same chasm the world has had since the beginning of time. A chasm that is being filled in with education, equality for minorities, the abolishment of slavery, greater opportunity to move up in the world based on other circumstance besides to whom you were born to, etc…That was the point. Get it?

“We” = 99% (I’m surprised you didn’t comprehend that one either.)

IMO, squatting in a park, with no leadership or plan is not “critically thinking” or “seeking out a resolution” regarding the disparity of wealth in the world…nor is commenting on a blog about some model getting 46K a month in child support.

Third world countries have a disparity of wealth because of political corruption. Are we going to tackle that too? Won’t that just bolster our image as “imperialist pigs”? (Don’t you hate those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations?)

You can have all the conviction you like, but in the end, I don’t see a single suggestion at a solution from you, just complaints and calls to critically discuss. So yes, after a while all the “discussing” starts to sound like whining.

At dgc,
Over the past 40 years, the wealthy are getting wealthier and the middle class are becoming working poor. There are tons of studies done and statistics to back this up. Remember when men used to be able to work one non-manegerial “company” job and still have a house, two cars and put money into savings? Now it is normal for both parents to work just to be able to make payments for their monthly bills. That is the chasm that is being spoken of. It is nice that we live in a free society where if you are successful you can make lots of money (and it’s even more impressive that a French man is a billionaire with the extraordinary high taxes they pay over there) However, the deck is stacked against the average joe more and more each year.

That being said, I’m all for this child getting $46,000 a month in support from his father, and if I was a billionaire getting divorced, I would not fight the amount given to my child. It’s not his fault that his parents had irreconcilable differences.